Track Nine: Starman
A little borrowed joy from Third Eye Blind – a song I guess I didn’t realize how sad it was due to its upbeat 90’s style? But when MGK slows down the chorus, we can see that it’s actually a song begging for something bigger to live for and to get through the lows.
And I sure am a 90’s early 2000’s kid but I love his version more.
While the song itself has an uplifting and 90s-era vibe, the lyrical content and its title appear to be a direct homage to David Bowie’s “Starman”. The song is about a character who is seeking his true identity and feels like an outcast. The lyrics are a metaphorical search for a higher purpose and a way out of his current state
Lyrical Interpretation
Yeah, I’m terrified of how I’m gonna look when I’m old
I can’t even see you, ’cause the room’s full of smoke
I don’t wake up until the sun gets low
Seven billion people, but we all die alone, so
Terrified of growing up? Unable to see because of the ‘smoke and mirrors’ or is the room really full of cigarette smoke of coping?
Sleeping way too long during the day – which to me is a call back to Vampire Diaries, when he can actually do things unseen in the world –
and the idea that you can be surrounded by people but yet, still feel so isolated.
All of these things paint a lonely picture in the evening — which feels like he’s listing all of the things he is fearful of or things running through his mind constantly.
I want something else to get me through this
Semi-charmed kind of life
Baby, baby, I want something else
I’m not listenin’ when you say goodbye
In the original song – it mentions crystal meth, drugs, and a lot of other wildish things that clearly are not filling the void. It feels like in this song – mgk wrote it while he was clean – the cigarette smoke, needing something else to fill the void —
Said she wanna see the real me, so I’m standing naked
Tryna understand who I am, so overrated
We can get close, touch lips, have conversation
From the Midwest, but we need Californication
(Californication, uh-uh)
For the first line, it could be very literal, but I take that as a metaphor of vulnerability. Trying to get to the bottom of who he is, but either he thinks the act of doing so is overrated, or he thinks that he himself, is overrated. I feel like it’s the first option. Scared of getting old, but he’s standing naked. He decides that they can talk but for what?
He grew up in Ohio, and is proud of it – he still has that part of him with him at all times, but California is the place where people rediscover themselves and find freedom. He’s searching for that freedom and rediscovery.
I been up for day-ay-ay-ays
Cuttin’ up the yay-ay-ay-ay
Rollin’ up the Flay-ay-ay-ay
That’s a three-way-ay-ay-ay
To be honest, I know this is about either weed or cigarettes but I have no idea what rolling up the flay or cutting up the yay really means.
I want something else to get me through this
Semi-charmed kind of life
Baby, baby, I want something else
I’m not listenin’ when you say goodbye
Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo
Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo
Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo
Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo
I can count the hours and the minutes that it’s been without you
Take a heart and break it, if you wanna know, I’ll show you how to
You’re not here in person, so all I can do is sing about you
I be hearing rumors from the people that you keep around you, uh
This is definitely, possibly, maybe, a discussion of Megan when he was in rehab. Being away from her was probably the hardest part about that experience for him. I’m only assuming this because of many lines in treading water.
And yeah, I know your friends don’t like me
And you’re unlikely to think I could change
‘Cause you know I’m born hopeless
Love on the brain, but it came from the doses
This is showing the battle of rehab, changing, and knowing he is with someone who knows him to his core. He has sang so many times about entering rehab and then relapsing – so the hope for someone to change when you have seen them fall back into their old ways is a valid fear – and he knows it.
I been up for day-ay-ay-ays
Cuttin’ up the yay-ay-ay-ay
Rollin’ up the Flay-ay-ay-ay
That’s a three-way-ay-ay-ay
I want something else to get me through this
Semi-charmed kind of life
Baby, baby, I want something else
I’m not listenin’ when you say goodbye
Every time I read this verse, the more it repeats, the more I think about who is saying goodbye?
This album got a lot of flack from some fans that have put him in a box as a rapper or rocker only. Before the release of this album, he put out some country covers, and now this album is a bit of blending of pop, rock and rap. Some people who have isolated him into one genre, which he is actively fighting against, have said ‘goodbye’. So besides discussing his love life and rehab, I also see this song a bit towards the fans.
That would even make sense of the beginning lyrics- looking into a crowd full of smoke, unable to see them, knowing that there is a massive group he is preforming for but it feels still, so empty [this can be a direct reference to his song lonely]
This would also make sense in the idea of being vulnerable with his fans – releasing his thoughts to the world. even when the room is full im lonely, im lonely without you.
Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo
Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo
Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo
Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo
And these four chords can make me cry (doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo)
When I’m with you, I feel like I could die (doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo)
And that would be alright, alright (doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo)
death with the one you love – is better than being without them.
This also links back up to treading water ‘even if i have god without you i have no reason’
I’m in the wrong place, wrong planet, oh
Wrong place, wrong planet, oh
Run away, keep running, yeah
Run away, keep running, oh
Wrong place, wrong planet, oh
Wrong place, wrong planet, oh
Run away, keep running, oh
The last lines really bring this idea of isolation, alienation and loneliness out that he sings about pretty frequently – but he’s talking about it in such a blunt way. The alienation of being in rehab, the mischaracterization from pop media, and the confinement of being placed in a singular boxed genre is like living on another planet – in which no one understands you.
Image Representation
800 asa cinestill 35mm
Tryna understand who I am, so overrated
We can get close, touch lips, have conversation
From the Midwest, but we need Californication